Makinti Napanangka Biography

Makinti Napanangka (1932- 2011) was a senior Pintupi Aboriginal artist, who lived at Kintore Community and in her final years in Alice Springs. Makinti began painting in 1995 as a member of the Haasts Bluff – Kintore painting project conducted at Kintore. Makinti quickly developed her own style and maintained her individual look throughout, painting continuously from 1995, aside from an enforced break due to a cataract operation in 1998.

Makinti Napanangka ‘s paintings are often the stories of the Kungka Kutjarra (Two Women), Ancestor figures whose travels cover great distances from Pitjantjajara country, then north east through to and beyond Haasts Bluff and Papunya. Such journeys include numerous ceremonial sites, ceremonial activities and food gathering.

Makinti’s images often comprise hairstring skirts, these skirts are woven by the women from human hair using a simple spindle made of two sticks, and belts worn by women in ceremonies. Makinti did not concern herself with neatness, or the painstaking ‘dot by dot’ approach. Her bands of lines can form into arcs, and create patterns that twist and bend. She is very different from all her Aboriginal art contemporaries. Makinti Napanangka’s work is represented in major public and private collections.

Japingka Gallery has exhibited the work of Makinti Napanangka over a number of years including the exhibitions –

2008 Women’s Law
2006 Luminaries of the Desert
2005 Across Skin-Women Artists of the Western Desert

A selection of paintings by Makinti Napanangka is available from Japingka Gallery.